Monthly Archives : December 2011

National Greens Attracted to Shiny, Symbolic Fights

In the early 2000s, when the Bush Administration started formulating its domestic energy policy, they snookered U.S. environmental groups with a classic bait & switch. Bush & company made a lot of noise about opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which has long been a symbolic icon for green groups. Environmentalists promptly went…Continue Reading…

Light at End of the Tunnel?

Someone I have a lot of respect for says all the Durban bashing is misinformed. To those who argue that the recent climate summit in South Africa produced nothing of consequence, Andrew Light counters: The fact is that not only did Durban produce a package of agreements essential for any hope of a meaningful contribution…Continue Reading…

While Looking Ahead, Let's Also Look Back

Responding to the notion that future generations are going to be worse off because of the actions (or non-action) of those living today, a U.S. reader offers another perspective: By the time I graduated high school everyone personally not only knew someone who had “˜been to war’ but everyone knew someone who had been killed or maimed…Continue Reading…

Climate Hawks Letting off Steam?

Oh, this should be good for another noisy round of meaningless climate warfare: “Our biggest problem is to deal with the skepticism and denial of the cult-like lemmings who would take us over the cliff,” said [California Governor Jerry] Brown, a Democrat, eliciting cheers and laughter from an audience of roughly 200 policymakers, businessleaders, and…Continue Reading…

The King of all Contrarians

Christopher Hitchens is being lionized today for many things. I met him once, in the early 1980s, after signing him up to to speak at my college. The first thing he said to me, after arriving: “Comrade, where do you go to get a drink around here?” He was terrific that day, of course. Andrew…Continue Reading…

The Climate Doom Drumbeat

There is a popular belief in some quarters that the media is timid with its coverage on climate change. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The dominant narrative for some time has been that global warming is real and will soon wreak havoc with the planet and civilization. Some in the climate concerned community…Continue Reading…

Historic Analogies for Climate Change are Beguiling

It is just about as obvious that AGW [anthropogenic global warming] is not a serious problem as it was that the Nazis weren’t in 1936. Plenty of supposedly reasonable people had plenty of reasonable reasons to do nothing about it then, but today we just think they were stupid. Wasn’t it just obvious, weren’t the…Continue Reading…

When Life Gets in the Way

Miller-McCune has an article titled, “Why Isn’t Climate Change on More lips?” It starts off: Eighty-three percent of Americans believe the Earth is heating up, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsons poll. Yet most live as though global warming isn’t taking place, even while knowing that it is. The piece goes on to discuss an array of denial devices…Continue Reading…

About Those Cute Teddy Bears

I just read a post that leads off this way: In January 2009, new voluntary pharmaceutical industry guidelines on marketing to physicians went into effect (David 2010), which emphasize disclosure and transparency regarding the relationship between physicians and pharmaceutical companies. They also require changes in how pharmaceutical companies market products to physicians. In fairness, the…Continue Reading…

The Durban Climate Deal and Cognitive Dissonance

There’s something remarkable happening this week in the climatesphere. People who routinely thunder that we are on the verge of climate doom have mostly shrugged at the lackluster outcome of the recent climate summit in South Africa. I’m wondering if they’ve self-medicated themselves with sedatives. Consider that, last week Grist’s David Roberts wrote (his emphasis): If…Continue Reading…